/ 24 October 2005

Zuma raids: Scorpions to appeal court ruling

The National Prosecuting Authority will on Monday appeal a court ruling that the NPA return documents seized in a search of the offices of Julekha Mahomed, an attorney of Jacob Zuma.

Mahomed’s legal representative Neil Tuchten said the hearing would start at 2pm at the Johannesburg High Court.

NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi confirmed the hearing.

The documents were taken during a countrywide raid on Zuma’s properties and those of his lawyers by the Scorpions in August.

Judge Ismail Hussain subsequently ruled that two search warrants for the office and home of Mahomed were obtained and executed unlawfully, and that attorney-client privilege was violated by the Scorpions’ conduct.

Hussain’s ruling set aside the warrants, and ordered the Scorpions to return all documents, files and objects seized from her premises.

President Thabo Mbeki fired Zuma as South Africa’s deputy president in July after he was found by the Durban High Court to have had a generally corrupt relationship with his former financial adviser Schabir Shaik.

Zuma was then charged on two counts of corruption. – Sapa